I’d like to thank you all for coming, and to thank my
colleague Steven Chu for hosting this meeting.

For much of the last year, Secretary Chu and I have been
serving as international evangelists for the promise of clean
energy.

On our trips outside the beltway – both here in the U.S.
and overseas – we’ve been able to see up close the cutting edge innovations that
American companies are selling abroad – as well as the tremendous progress so
many countries are making in scaling up their own clean energy
industry

And when you see these state-of-the-art factories
churning out ultra efficient diesel engines or solar panels, you realize that
clean energy and energy-efficiency technologies aren’t just a critical part of
solving the world's environmental and climate
challenges.

They are in fact perhaps the greatest economic
opportunity of the 21st century. Last year, global investment in clean energy
reached $145 billion, and that number will grow exponentially in the years
ahead.

Here in America, we see clean energy as key
to revitalizing an American industrial and manufacturing base that once
supported the most prosperous middle class in history.

But for all of clean energy's promise, we all know there
are plenty of people in governments, in business and in the media who question
the promise of clean energy.

They tell you that clean energy may be “nice.” It might
make us “feel good.” And it might even be worth investing in. But to imagine:
that it can produce a “substantial share” of the world’s energy? That clean
energy can be a “significant driver” of economic growth and job creation?
…

I say if the next few decades of energy policy looks
like the last few decades – where America and the world’s will to act on clean
energy has risen and fallen with the price of a barrel of oil – then the
naysayers may be right.

Our challenge is to write a different story.

To convince people of the urgency to act, and the
potential of clean energy technologies to unleash a new wave of innovation and
job creation.

The Obama administration
and the Commerce Department have already made unprecedented investments in clean
energy.

The Obama administration
has:

invested over $80 billion
in clean energy through the Recovery Act;

passed the toughest fuel
economy standards in history; and

incentivized more stringent
efficiency standards for buildings, appliances and consumer-electronics.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department has put its resources
behind growing clean energy businesses at every step in the business development
process.

Our Patent and Trademark Office has announced a pilot
program that allows inventors who have already submitted patent applications for
green technologies to have their submissions receive an expedited
review.

Our National Institute of Standards and Technology is
making tremendous progress in working with industry to develop standards that
will support the nation-wide deployment of the Smart Grid.

And we are working on cutting-edge research to
facilitate more energy-efficient manufacturing and construction
processes.

As we work to scale up the clean energy industry at
home, Commerce is also playing a key role in the president's National Export
Initiative, and we’re putting a particular focus on opening up opportunities for
U.S. clean energy and efficiency
companies abroad.

In fact, Commerce is working with the Department of
Energy and other members of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee to create
the nation's first “National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export
Strategy.”

What we’re doing is producing results.

One company that accompanied me on a clean
energy trade mission to China in May is a perfect
example.

During the trip, a Michigan-based company
named United Solar entered into an agreement to sell 500 kilowatts of its solar
laminates to a facility in China.

The project will bring the company $11
million in revenue, with over 95 percent of the laminates manufactured in
Michigan and exported to China for final
assembly.

This export success is the type of win-win scenario
clean energy makes possible.

The UniSolar project will create good-paying
manufacturing jobs in the U.S., while helping China reduce its
carbon emissions – and the world
address climate change.

But for all the export potential we see, for all the
promise we see in companies like UniSolar, we know that more must be
done.

Right now, billions of
investment dollars are sitting on the sidelines because of a lack of certainty
in the energy marketplace.

Until that changes, we can't expect businesses and
utilities that are accountable to shareholders to make a wholesale transition to
clean energy.

And we can’t expect more entrepreneurs to make
investments in clean energy solutions that may or may not be self-sustaining in
the energy marketplace.

This is why President Obama – along with entrepreneurs,
investors, and corporate heavyweights ranging from U.S. Steel and Nike to John
Deere and IBM – are pushing for the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive energy
legislation that features a price on carbon.

This would essentially put a floor under the price of
fossil fuels – instead of the uncertain target we have today – and it would send
a surefire market signal to every entrepreneur and business in America
that it’s safe and profitable to make long-term investments in clean energy and
efficiency.

As many of you know, this is going to be a difficult
fight, and there are plenty of vested interests in countries all around the
world that would like to continue the status quo on energy – which would mean
more pollution, less security and less economic opportunity in the years
ahead.

The world’s failure to fully realize the promise of
clean energy and efficiency is not because of a lack of potential. Rather, it’s
because of a lack of vision. And a failure of leadership.

After a century dominated by fossils fuel use, it's
naturally hard to imagine another way. There are plenty of smart and
experienced people saying that our energy future has to look a whole lot like
our energy past.

But it doesn't have to be that way. And in fact, it
simply can’t be that way if we want to preserve our environments and grow our
economies.

With the right vision and the right commitment, we can
build a clean energy economy that provides good jobs and sets the world up for
decades of sustainable economic growth.

Everyone here today is playing a part in helping that
future become a reality – and I want to urge you to keep pressing to keep the
world’s clean energy policies moving in the right
direction.